Vienna

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<map lat='48.2' lng='16.3744' zoom='10' view='3' float='right' /> Vienna (Wien in German, Bécs in Hungarian) is the capital of Austria. It is in the east of the country on the river Danube. More than 1,6 million people live there. It is the largest city of Austria and is surrounded by the state of Lower Austria. It is also an administrative district (Bundesland) of its own.

Hitching Out

West towards Munich, Salzburg

Take the U4 to Hütteldorf, get off and go towards Hadikgasse (left), walk left again, then you are right on the main road leading out of Vienna towards Linz, Salzburg, Munich. There is a bus stop which is a well known hitching spot. Change cars (if necessary) at the rest areas St. Pölten or Ansfelden.

Alternatively, you can go over the motorway via the bridge. Turn right after it and walk for one km until you see Autohof Wien.

North towards Prague

Take a train from Handelskai to Kornneuburg. Get out of the station and turn left. Follow the main street, and after ca. 1 km turn left into a small street. Cross the railway and walk further until you see an on-ramp.

North towards Brno

MrTweek hitching to Vienna

From central Wien take a tram nr.31 to the last station, Stammersdorf. Continue on your right down the main street, Brünner Str (road nr. 7); pass the "Merkur" supermarket till you come to another shopping center, about 300m further. Hitchhike right after the entrance to the parking lot. All the traffic to Brno passes here, although bear in mind that many cars leave this road before the border and turn eastwards onto some country roads to get to the Slovak motorway. In case your driver continues past Brno, ask him/her to drop you off at the "Olimpia" shopping center which is situated on the motorway – from there you will find a free bus to central Brno.

East towards Bratislava, Győr and Budapest

Cultural note: Watch out for Romanian drivers who may attempt to charge you for the ride and/or drop you off in a remote area if you don't pay. Make clear before you sit in a Romanian car that you ain't gonna pay: "Is the lift free? / I can't pay." - "E gratis? / N-am bani sa va dau."

There is a petrol station on the motorway to Budapest where you can easily find a ride to Bratislava or further into Slovakia. To get to this petrol station by public transport you should get to Enkplatz (by Metro U3) and from there you can take a bus number 76A to 7. Haidequerstraße. Be careful because there are two stops with the same name, 7. Haidequerstraße and 11. Haidequerstraße – get off at the first one, which comes after Simmeringer Haide. After the stop, the bus turns right, but to get to the petrol station, walk straight on on Haidequerstraße to the north for a couple of minutes. The petrol station is on the autobahn A4 towards the east, Bratislava, Győr and Budapest.

Most of the cars passing in this petrol station are coming off the highway or going to the airport. You can get more cars going to Slovakia or Hungary if you take the first ride to the next petrol station on the highway, named Göttlesbrunn, which is just before the fork of the two roads going to Bratislava and Budapest.

When heading to Hungary, it is recommended to stand on petrol stations holding a sign while being visible both to the drivers on the road and at petrol stations.

South towards Graz, Slovenia

Take the free IKEA bus from the Opera (Oper) to the SCS (Shopping City Süd) or the Badener Bahn (costs 3,40 Euro, as of Feb.2009) to Maria-Enzersdorf (Südstadt). Advantages of the latter one: it goes more often and earlier in the morning than the bus. If you take the train, you can go to one station after Shopping City Süd which is called Maria-Enzersdorf (Südstadt). This one is closer to the actual interchange: just get off the train, head the direction you came from, turn right by the end of the platform, cross the tracks, pass 100 m of wild grass and there is a curved street – you'll see the signs.

Alternatively you can take public transport to Matzleinsdorfer Platz where the Triester Straße begins (direction South-West). This road is extremely long but it has on-ramps for heading South (Graz). Try hitching somewhere along this road, or ask at petrol stations.

If you are okay with hichhiking at traffic lights, you can also just go to "Schönbrunn" with U4 (underground – green line). Cross the street and walk towards the entrance of Schönbrunn-castle. Now you are on "Grünbergstraße". Here you can try to hitchhike from the traffic lights. This street leads to "Altmannsdorfer Straße" which leads to A2 (the highway leading to the south).

Fare Evading

It's quite easy to ride the subway, bus, and tram system with no ticket. One Vienna's local (who actually did use a year pass) told she'd been checked once in a period of over a year despite riding public transport every day.

There is an internet site with a list of the lines which are going to be checked for black riders (http://apps.vienna.at/tools/schwarzkappler/). Schwarzkappler is an Austrian slang term for the ticket controllers. Although the site takes her information from a reliable source (the "Wiener Linien" herself) there had not been yet a proof how reliable that information is.

I got checked the very first time I blackride in Vienna. At the time I didn't bring any money with me and didn't have my passport with me. The police told me to step out of the car and told me that they needed to take me to police station (since I couldn't pay the fine and couldn't show them my passport). And then they talked to each other for a few minutes and told me to go upstairs and buy a ticket. I returned with my ticket and gave it to them and continued my trip. Since then, no more black riding for me in Vienna,
I got controlled 5 times within 5 months in the subway, so I wouldn't say it's quite easy to blackride... and the fine is 70€. But for buses and tramways, it's almost never controlled (except night buses!). If you're a foreigner, you still can give a fake address in your homeland country, and you won't get in trouble.

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